Aston Villa Players ‘Lacking Fitness’ Excuse is a Dubious Villa Trend

‘[Villa] finished very strongly and laid siege to the Newcastle goal in the final minutes. Nobody was talking about a lack of fitness then.’

Lets mention one fact before we continue any further… Aston Villa first team players are paid five figures A WEEK as professional sportsmen and peak fitness for their sport is key to their job.

In terms of Villa player’s fitness, as well as the health and fitness infrastructure of Bodymoor Heath, judging by their Instagram pictures and videos, most players also enlist specialist personal trainers too. For starters, the likes of Jack Grealish and Gary Gardner have the same fitness coach as heavyweight boxing champ Anthony Joshua.

“I think that’s an easy one and I wouldn’t like to say that against any other manager, but it’s fair to say that some can be in better condition and I think that’s only right,” said the new Villa boss.

As we’ll see later, such sentiments are something of a habit for new Villa managers.

Of Villa’s starting 11 against Wolves, yes, Mile Jedinak, for example, look far from being 100% fit. The Villa midfielder again last week had been around the world on international duty for Australia and not helped by the fact he’s 32. The ex-Palace player currently seems to be in a permanent state of jet lag when he plays for Villa, which when you consider his international duty requirements puts a question mark on him being a sensible buy.

The fitness issue could also perhaps be applied to Micah Richards simply from the point of view of him not having many first-team matches under his belt this season. Although Richards is naturally athletic and actually looked ok before he left the match injured.

But is it really relevant to the rest of the players?

The Wolves game showed little of the intensity shown by Villa players in the home against Huddersfield, for example. In that earlier game, Villa were impressive in their pressing and work rate. After a committed first 70 minutes or so, they understandably lost a little intensity and Huddersfield also adapted and made changes to impose themselves more on the game.

Against Newcastle, the Villa team were largely clueless in the first 70 minutes or so, but finished very strongly and laid siege to the Newcastle goal in the final minutes. Nobody was talking about a lack of fitness then.

Against Wolves, the team seemed lacklustre and clueless from the time they came out for the second half. This was not necessarily a fitness issue. This was both an application issue by the players and tactical deficiencies.

Of course, the manager is obviously new to his team with only two full days training with the squad under his belt. Yet, it is far too simplistic to solely focus on this. What about the players? Most of the players of this Villa team have played together for 12 league games now, yet they looked like strangers at time in the last few games.

This fitness excuse is dubious, something that some fans then go on to repeat in parrot-like fashion, without looking at the bigger picture.

Previous…

In recent years, this ‘fitness excuse’ has alarmingly been used frequently by previous Villa managers. It’s a kind of neutral excuse that allows the manager to not directly blame the players (and thus not upset morale), but subtly lay the blame at the feet of the previous regime for the current state of the team.

Houllier Fitness Excuse

For example, the first thing Gerard Houllier did when he came in was raise the fitness issue, despite the previous Martin O’Neill team being one of the best in the Premier League at picking up points from losing positions, which suggested they had good stamina and were up for the fight.

October 23rd 2010 in the Daily Mirror

Houllier’s double training sessions caused players like Richard Dunne, James Collins and Gabby Agbonlahor to rebel and effected player morale.

McLeish Fitness Excuse

Ironically, despite this new intensive fitness regime, Alex McCleish who followed the French man in the Villa hot seat, seemed unimpressed by the fitness of squad he inherited, publicly challenging players to shape up in pre-season.

It didn’t end there.

Garde Fitness Excuse

If you want more evidence of this trend, in came Remi Garde pointing the finger at the fitness of the squad he inherited from Tim Sherwood.

Surely the penny would drop, if player fitness was a real issue at Bodymoor Heath?

This trend would suggest new incoming managers are simply buying themselves some time, because surely Aston Villa players can’t be perpetually unfit!

Man Up

It’s time for players to take responsibility for the effort and desire shown in games and managers for their tactics and motivation.

If the players truly are not fit enough, it’s becoming so laughable that supporters should be entitled to their money back, because we pay top dollar to see professional players at the top of their game and fitness.

Come on. Bar injuries, all players should have appropriate fitness and stamina levels to last 90 minutes. Why is it in an age of increased sporting science and technology, the populist excuse of players not being fit is used more and more?

A squad of just 14 Villa players, who had none of this technology and support, who enjoyed a beer after games and weren’t paid silly money to stay at peak fitness, managed to win the league in 1981 without much fuss.

It’s time for managers and players to cut the cr*p, man-up and take responsibility for what is happening on the pitch.

10 COMMENTS

McCormack, Richards, Cissokho and Jedinak were all blowing and heavily out of breath in the pre-match warm up as I looked on from the Doug Ellis touchline. Then with the Elphick injury we were stretched even further at the back, and Chester stuck out a lazy foot in 2nd half like Cissokho stuck out a lazy hand which gave them the 1st half penalty! Lack of fitness and discipline, not enough pressing and have got in the habit of conceding after getting ahead makes this an even bigger challenge for Bruce to sort out – best of luck Steve!

Although having watched Villa since 1938, I would not assume to tell the Manager how to do his job.
However, it is only too clear that some of our players are trying it on. Having an RAF Apprenticeship in my early years, which was terrifying with regard to doing exactly what was required of you, both from a fitness and behavior point of view, it is quite easy to spot characters who are not “pulling their weight”. This is something that Mr. Bruce is rather good at sorting out and with consideration to the amount earned, I believe we may be in for some dramatic changes, and soon. Good luck to him. UTV.

Yes, I freaked when I heard some players were unfit, forgot to add that to my earlier list of problems that are more than 1 year old. Though with Jedinak it cannot be a surprise that a 32yr old can’t jet around the world and then play immediately after. Cissokho I don’t think has ever been able to play 90 minutes. Forget players next transfer window, get me some sports scientists and psych’s. However I personally think the root cause is lack of discipline, many yellow cards, too much individual play, switching off, late goals. All this whilst in my head I just see Instagrim snaps of partying players.

Some good points in the article, and responses. Fitness can mean many things, but the terms conditioning and stamina may be more the point here- the right balance of training, diet and rest to allow the players to perform their specific roles on the pitch. Most of these guys run no more than 10k in the course of a match, with a 20 min break half way. Most amateur athletes could manage that in the local gym. But it’s the unpredictable , stop-start and multidirectional effort that saps the footballer’s energy. That’s where our players fail, and it’s a vicious cycle made worse by the stress of repeated failures. Nothing sucks the energy out of you like anxiety, and our players have a ton of that- maybe it’s a character issue.

Bad tactics, weak midfield that allows us to get overrun, lack players running for each other and support – these things all wear down the team. First thing Bruce has to do is find a formation that compensates for the midfield we have until January. Second thing, get the players playing together and being willing runners for each other.

Shock & horror the players get 5 figure sums to not produce results for Villa coz they aint fit . But the article suggests that apart from a few individuals it’s not true . Sprinters burn all their energy over a short distance whilest marathon runners pace themselves so that they can reach the finish line . But what of footie players are they any different to runners ? I suspect not ! Villa are desperate for results and yes the players are trying hard to get those results so much so that they are burning out inthe 1st 70 mins , and other teams have realised that so are using tactics to tire our players before piling on the pressure in the last 10-20 mins in the hope of getting a result
So rather than it being purely a lack of fitness Vila’s players need to learn to pace themselves with tactics that can put pressure on the opposition yet ensure they can survive for 90+ minutes

C.Gale makes a good valid point. It’s about good management and training. I’ve often wondered about training techniques at Bodymore. We often seem out smarted, especially in the second half. Saturday, worryingly Wolves just seemed, quicker, smarter fitter and more spirited by far. Even if Bruce makes us the next Hull City, that would be a step forward! We still need a bigger squad. Westwood off the bench isn’t going to change anything. January must see at least one other new recruit in midfield, a ball winner who can pass. Some like Barry or even Gana. We’ll get nowhere is we don’t strengthen midfield.

Although fitness maybe an issue, I think the biggest cause of fatigue is the inability of our players to keep the ball for any length of time and then constantly having to try and win it back, this is not helped by the Villa park crowd constantly urging players to kick it towards the opposition goal regardless if this may result in losing possession.

They finished strong against Newcastle, despite running around like headless chickens for the first 70 mins. They’re pros and their conditioning & fitness is good. Di Matteo made a big point of giving them double sessions in pre-season to get them ready for a high intensity approach. The problem is despite early signs of this approach in the first games, they offered little else and don’t have a midfield that is strong enough or good enough in possession to dictate games, which brings it’s own problems. Other teams have been bossing us due to this.